A Night of New Firsts

First Night of Theatre 810 & First Play of The Compound & a New Play of Cody Daigle's...
but sadly I missed the First (Opening) Night & was there the Second Night...
close enough I'd say--still New, a Day Old Baby is still New in my book?!

Characters: Jude - Shakespeare's daughter & Judith - Shakespeare's sister
Actors: Martha Diaz & Sarah Gauthier
photo credit: The Compound's webpage
(note: my 2 fav women in the play & I didn't want to borrow all the posts photos so chose this one)

AUI/AURA & The Compound presented
William & Judith

A New Play by Cody Daigle
Directed by Alicia Chaisson

photo credit: from The Compound's webpage
a great photo of Cody Daigle, with his facial hair intact
(as you'll note previously in The Guys, he had to sans the beard for a 'stache only & now he's actually all bare faced again - until the beard grows back...Whew?! almost as bad as a woman & her haircuts... just kidding mind you, if he reads this or anyone that knows him--no offense y'all?!)

Director: Alicia Chaisson
photo credit: The Compound webpage
(note: I have not met Alicia yet, but am sure I will one day--if I continue to go to the Theatre 810 for the rest of their plays after this First New one of William & Judith...)

The Play: William & Judith's next stop--Tulsa, Oklahoma...
Since the play was developed/read at Playhouse Theatre in Tulsa, OK it will have it's World Premiere at the same theatre in Feb of next year, 2012...

Link to The Compound's webpage to read more about the new theatre collective (that's their description--collective) & the Play William & Judith with photos from the production, their first & a lot more about the actors & director & Well--just go over there & read more...
http://thecompoundtheatre.wordpress.com/

From the Program, some details follow...

Time: 1609 - 1610

Place: William Shakespeare's rooms, London (UK)

Description: (or I'd say Inspiration)

"Let me imagine, since the facts are so hard to come by, what would have happened had Shakespeare had a wonderfully gifted sister, called Judith, let us say...

She was adventurous, as imaginative, as agog to see the world as he was. But she was not sent to school. She had no chance of learning grammar and logic, let alone of reading Horace and Virgil.
She picked up a book now and then, one of her brother's perhaps, and read a few pages.
But then her parents came in and told her to mend the stockings or mind the stew and not moon about with books and papers...

Had she survived, whatever she had written would have been twisted and deformed, issuing from a strained and morbid imagination. And undoubtedly, I thought, looking at the shelf where there are no plays by women, her workd would have gone unsigned...

Anonymity runs in their blood."

-Virginia Woolf
"A Room of One's Own"

photo credit:

Source: http://www.english.sbc.edu/Graphics/Other/book.jpg

Article: A Room of One's Own


From Wikipedia...

Judith Shakespeare

[In one section, Woolf invented a fictional character, Judith, "Shakespeare's sister," to illustrate that a woman with Shakespeare's gifts would have been denied the same opportunities to develop them because of the doors that were closed to women.

Like Woolf, who stayed at home while her brothers went off to school, Judith stays at home while William goes off to school.

Judith is trapped in the home: "She was as adventurous, as imaginative, as agog to see the world as he was. But she was not sent to school."

Woolf's prose holds all the hopes of Judith Shakespeare against her brother's hopes in the first sentence, then abruptly curtails Judith's chances of fulfilling her promise with "but."

While William learns, Judith is chastised by her parents should she happen to pick up a book, as she is inevitably abandoning some household chore to which she could be attending.

Judith is betrothed, and when she does not want to marry, she is beaten and then shamed into marriage by her father.

While Shakespeare establishes himself, Judith is trapped by the confines of the expectations of women.

Judith kills herself, and her genius goes unexpressed, while Shakespeare lives on and establishes his legacy.

For Woolf, Judith Shakespeare is an exemplification of the danger and waste in denying women education and the means to determine the course of their lives.]


Link to Wiki...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Room_of_One's_Own

Note: although this version of Virginia Woolf may have been Cody Daigle's inspiration his version was nowhere near this dark, though not a complete Happy (Fairy Tale) Ending either...still it fit with how William Shakespeare would have ended a play?!

photo credit: unknown
found on someone's blog who did not give credit to the original source, so do I need to give credit to their blog? hmmm...dunno for sure, they're in France & does that matter...nevermind...I like the photo for another view of Virginia Woolf in a room, a much different one than the Monk's House Room - this one with her books & a cigarette in it's proper holder in front of a painting I don't know...again, nevermind...it's the feeling of this woman in this room different than the other--but still a Women in a Room of Her (One's) Own right?!

Link to the Virginia Woolf Society...
http://www.virginiawoolfsociety.co.uk/

note: especially another black & white photo of her at the Univ of Sussex & Society of Authors at Monk's House...She looks as contemplative as a woman can be seated in possibly a Room of Her (One's) Own...

Link to Facebook Page for AUI/AURA...
http://www.facebook.com/AUI.AURA

AUI = Acting Unlimited, Inc
AURA = Acting Unlimited Repertory Academy

link to AUI webpage...
http://actingunlimitedinc.org

Link to The Ind newspaper articles by Anna Purdy...
Sept 6, 2011
http://www.theind.com/arts-a-entertainment/86-aae/8969-bet-the-bard-would-like-gelato-and-cody-daigle
Sept 13, 2011
http://www.theind.com/arts-a-entertainment/86-aae/9012-weekinder-091411


Theatre 810
address:
810 Jefferson St.
Lafayette, LA 70501
phone:
337-873-1548
tickets:
www.EventBrite.com

Note: Yes, they are right next door to Carpe Diem Gelato Espresso...could they have a better neighbor? Hello! Intermission--Espresso or Gelato or Pastries?!

Link to Closing Night - Thursday - Sept 29, 2011 - Dinner & Theatre...
http://www.eventbrite.com/org/1397247745?s=5078277

And next door/across the side street from Carpe Diem Gelato Espresso is Bonnie Belle's Bistro - which on Closing Night there will be a Dinner & Theatre combination ticket being offered for an extraordinary price of only $30.00 (am sad I will miss it most likely, but I was there on their Second Night ever I can still tell the Grandkids?!)

       ***

A woman's point of view... (yes, mine)

...as I did leave the play thinking - and wanting to talk about the women's ideas in the play?!

I can well imagine this play - William & Judith - as a Women's Studies Course, along with naturally Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" being read along side it...

How Cody Daigle--Yes, a man...could channel these women characters & their words so incredibly well is a mystery to me...as I have also read books that were written by men about women or women about men who could so 'get into the characters' that it didn't matter which gender they were writing in--they just knew the character, the people, as if they were real flesh in blood standing in front of them living/breathing/speaking/moving... (maybe one day I will ask 'the' man--How Did You Do That?!)

But I'll admit too there were Women playing the Women's parts, so they must have had some input & there's a Woman Director (Alicia Chaisson) along with them so how could she not also have her input into these women as characters - whatever the combination between them all, it was wonderful to watch/hear unfold...

And though many of the posts on The Compound's webpage comment in reply for instance by actors/directors that the story is about 'a man' or about 'Shakespeare' - I felt the story of the Women (all of them: Judith, Jude & Anne Hathaway-Shakespeare) was so much stronger, Judith afterall gets equal billing with William in the Title of the Play...

It does also make you ponder, perhaps too many women already have, if  indeed 'back in the day' of the Victorian's or Virginia Woolf's or the Elizabethian's or the Shakespeare's that Women were behind more than we know...behind the Plays or the Books or whatever else that men lay claim to - that saying that goes something like: Behind every Successful Man Stands a Great Woman, is then not just an idle remark or a feminist rant either...(btw besides, again, I'm just 'pondering' - I am also not old enough to be a Militant Feminist / Femi-Nazi, so don't go there - thank you & good night?!)

And another ponderance (is that a word-it's sounding like mispelled Shakespeare maybe) is within the character of Jude, who is illiterate in the play & what's been written as in real life as well - though a daugher of a great & famous writer - she doesn't even desire to read...which makes me think of all the women as girls who were not encouraged to do anything besides "mend the shirts or stir the stew?!"

All in all it ALL makes me very/Very/VERY grateful for living in the time that I am in right now & especially for being raised by a strong woman - my Grandmother - who told my sister & I that we could be anything we wanted to be & that we 'would' be going to college as well....my British friend's right about now would be saying "Bless Her" & I would have to agree?!

Brother Simon could do standup

Benedictine Monk Tunic & Scapular

photo credit: www.gothicgarments.com

(note: as didn't have one of the actual Brother Simon in his tunic)

Who knew a Monk could be funny...

I lost track of how many times I giggled or covered my mouth not to full out laugh, during Brother Simon's talk today at AdFed's Lunch 'n Learn...

Wish I could remember some of them, as you'd be listening it would take you a delayed second to realize he'd come up with yet another 'zinger' & you'd think did he just say that? Did a monk just say something funny--Yes he did?!

Non-profits not a typically fun subject, but there's no doubt this Monk is not typical - he deff blows the preconceptions outta the water I'd say...

And I like what he'd done for the Abbey's logo & webpage & how he designed thank you cards for contributions (taking design ideas from De Wit curtains in the Abbey or Rectory) & even the afternoon's presentation to an Advertising group, of all things - in a room full of people eating lunch at round tables where he was standing at a podium to give his presentation, which am guessing he's not use to doing on a daily basis - but we did all smile/laugh/later asked questions of him...

this a de Wit design on the curtains at the Abbey/Rectory 

that Brother Simon copied in order to make thank you cards that would print

As he said himself, as he took another drink of water, he was nervous having not spoken so much nor having seen so many people (when I was wondering somewhat if he also meant seen so many women too) in a long while - when they're not a silent Abbey but many hours are spent in prayers (did he say 5 hrs/times a day? which made me think of the Mosques with their calls to prayers...) And he also mentioned they eat in silence at the Dining Hall - so what a diff this day out was for him am sure...

Obstacles we think of in Abbey's/monastery's are not usually WiFi/Internet connections & print techniques or old camera's - for Brother Simon, also the Abbey's Communications Director, to at first try to do a modern day job of communications from ancient (if you can say early 1900's is ancient)/yet being remodeling facilities...

And besides a new artist I must look up, who painted in the Saint Joseph Abbey, I learned today about  rhythmic mode notes/inflective marks before the musical notes on 5 lines of today were made - or - they could be called breath notes--"neumes" (and you'll see them on Saint Joseph Abbey's webapge too, now you'll know what they are) They look like little square notes w/o a lot of tails down or strokes up...

a sample of  'neumes' or 'square notation'

I would of called this a chant, as in Gregorian Chant (which I have heard sung beautifully before inside the acoustics of an Abbey or Church....) Because of what the sounds are that come from reading words say in Latin in a song like way only by holding the breath longer on many a letter/note...

YouTube of Gregorian Chant by Benedictine Monks - don't find one of the Saint Joseph Abbey Monks...
http://youtu.be/fAdODk5vBoM

Oh my, now am remembering how I use to attend meditation classes at the Zen Center in Houston & they would have some ceremonies, we the public, could go to & attempt to 'sing' along - even with the words in front of me, often not in English, I couldn't sound like I was in harmony with anyone (it would take some practice I'm sure...)

Link to read more about neumes, if you're curious (like I always am...)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neume

Benedictine Artist Dom Gregory de Wit...

"Day visitors will enjoy tours of the Abbey Church and refectory, which were designated in 2007 as National Register of Historic Places properties. In 1946, Abbot Columban Thuis commissioned the Benedictine artist Dom Gregory de Wit to execute a series of original murals in these buildings. The Dutch monk lived and worked at Saint Joseph for 10 years as he painted the murals with mixtures that could withstand the humid climate. The magnificent results on the walls and ceilings have remained well-preserved and drawn lavish praise from critics and visitors alike."

Note: above text borrowed from AFF Acadiana webpage in their write up for the speaker...
Selling God: A Monk's Marketing Solution...

Link to AAF Acadiana...
http://aafacadiana.com/rsvpmaker/selling-god-a-monks-marketing-solution/

(note: check out their logo, like the walking ad board design guy in black/yellow...)

this is 'not' what I had in mind when I think of St Francis standing with the animals of the forest

but apparently this is what Dom Greogory de Wit thought - I can't seem to find many photos of the murals, surely there are postcards in the Abbey's giftshop...hmmm...

photo credit, taken in 2008 & found on this blogspot by I'm guessing a contemplative catholic who happened to visit the Saint Joseph Abbey & take these photos of a few select murals: http://contemplativecatholicspirituality.blogspot.com/2008/12/st-josephs-abbey.html

in the Rectory dining hall, the last supper mural by Dom Gregory de Wit - if not at one time the largest such mural of the last supper (with curious modern additions in it, as Brother Simon told us, water glasses or ashtrays?!)

photo credit: from www.peeepl.com (maybe this is like a Flickr page)


Artist Monk's Name: should be spelled De Wit & not DeWitt (but if you do a search, it may be spelled both ways) - the prefix title 'Dom' is from the Latin word: Dominus, a sign of respect (the feminine is Dame) & other languages could use Don & Dona *

*thank you Wikipedia

1 of their 5 apostolates...Pennies for Bread

the monks bake bread then take it to NOLA to distribute to a center that gives food to the poor & needy - after Hurricane Katrina I can only imagine how that must of been needed, possibly a reminder of the Bread Lines from back in the Depression Years if anyone had taken photos of the lineup (that was a time my Granny use to recall for us, her Grandkids - this from a Granny who got an orange for Christmas in her sock hung up on the fireplace & that was a big deal...)

Another of their 5 apostolate*s is Woodworking - where they had started making caskets, only to find out there was some obscure law on the books that supposedly only funeral homes could sell them...we'll be waiting to find out about this latest odd court ruling, as it's gone to legal action - can you imagine telling a church/monks they can't make/sell caskets for their dead parisheners/families, boggles my mind...(I thought all the crazy Blue Laws & such were done with in LA, but apparently there are a few leftover we don't know about - caskets being one of them?!)

*which I don't recall hearing that term before either - so my new word for the day after 'neumes' is 'apostolate', which basically in a community like this would be doing the work of the church...

Woodworking
(note: drawing gift for the day, was a monkmade wooden box - no, not a mini casket either - with a handcrafted soap inside, the soap making is a new venture the Abbey monks are taking on so folks can look for more to come from that idea soon...)

A link to an article about this court battle...
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/08/st_joseph_abbey_battles_state.html

And one more link - someone asked in a nutshell if bad publicity was not also good publicity at times, or in this case then the Abbey/Monks/Woodworking/Caskets/Fundraising all came to the public awareness in the media/court debate...
http://veracitystew.com/2010/08/29/casket-making-monks-vs-louisiana-funeral-assoc/

Link to Saint Joseph Abbey webpage...
http://saintjosephabbey.org/

Check out the Monastic MultiMedia - YouTubes? Flickr photos?
on Abbey Voice Online - the 'digital scriptorium'

Under the Christian Life Center--they offer retreats out in Covington, LA...even art retreats (am hoping not just Icons) - would I love to go to the woods/gardens/cemetery with a camera or inside the Abbey to take photos of the DeWit paintings to start - or to sit in a room to write in total peace & quiet...no matter the Faith you can go as a group of up to 40 & stay in the modern rooms with meals, or at least the 1 photo of a room online reminds me of modern if not somewhat Scandinavian type furniture (remembering I just moved back from Stavanger, Norway...)

Sept 30 - Oct 1st the next retreat date on their online schedule...

Waiting for a 'Deo Gratis' in Lafayette now to laugh with the monks, or at least Brother Simon - but so far there are only fundraiser parties going on in NOLA & BR...

Wiki about the Abbey, if you're interested...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph_Benedictine_Abbey

from Wiki about the Abbey...

The Abbey Church

St. Joseph Abbey is known for its Abbey Church. It is a fairly large building built in the Romanesque style. In 1946 the Abbot of the monastery, Abbot Columbian, commissioned Dom Gregory De Wit, a very talented Benedictine artist, to fill the abbey church, monastery, and monastery refractory with beautiful murals. These murals depict saints, stories from the Bible, God's creation, and stories from the life of St. Benedict. De Wit was able to come up with a mixture of paint that would withstand the harsh humidity of South Louisiana. Many visitors have traveled to the Abbey just to see these remarkable paintings.

However, this is not the only thing that draws visitors to the Abbey Church. In the early 2000s St. Joseph became a proud owner of a Dobson Pipe Organ opus 2000. This organ has become very well known. Many accomplished musicians have traveled to St. Joseph to play this organ and record many musical albums. This organ was also privileged to be the cover picture of the April 2001 edition of The American Organist magazine  The world renowned Fr. Sean Duggan, a monk of St. Joseph Abbey who teaches piano and organ at the University of New York, is well known for his playing of this organ...

(note: there was no mention of the pipe organ in today's talk, but now am curious to hear it...but then it doesn't take much for me to be curious?!)

2000 Dobson organ at St. Joseph Abbey, Saint Benedict, Louisiana
photo credit: http://pipedreams.publicradio.org/listings/2009/0912/

A link to a photo gallery starting from the Spring of 2005 - I especially liked seeing the white peacocks (not sure I've ever seen a white one before, as many zoos/gardens/grounds/countries I've been to-it's usually the regular colorful ones I've seen/heard & on at least one occasion have tried to take a video of them spreading their tail feathers...)
http://www.pbase.com/septembermorn/st_joseph_abbey

*NOTE: Addition since Sept 11 - written up in Dec 11/Jan 12 ABiz by John Mikell:
Link to article " The Anti-Loren Scott: Brother Simon Stubbs, a monk at St. Joseph's Abbey in Covington, addresses AAF Acadiana on his career in 'Selling God.' "
http://abizlafayette.net/publication/index.php?i=&m=707&l=1&p=19&pre=&ver=swf

       +++

Lunch 'n Learn...I did learn something, a lot of somethings - so thank you AdFedAcadiana...
& esp to the 2 members who sent me Tweets last minute or I wouldn't have made it on time/if not early, because I thought it started at 11:30am not that it was pre-registration & 12:00pm was the start time - I'm never early, this was a first I think?! Well, you know who you are--again, thanks guys?! :oD

not just any 1 of The Guys...

The Guys by: Anne Nelson
September 9th and 10th @ 7pm
September 11th @ 3pm *

(note: made it to this one, but just a bit late - as was using the new GPS & don't know Opelousas - ended up then sitting up under the balcony next to the guys filming so a perfect viewing spot in the Delta Grand Theatre...also thankfully in the dark, so I could cry at least 3 if not 4 times & once back in my car too - you hurt for a lot of folks, we were away from our country back then so I think I hurt for the country still from 10 yrs ago...)

“The Guys” tells the story of Nick, a New York City fire captain who has lost many men in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. He comes to see Joan, a writer, so that she can help him write eulogies for his fallen men. As the two characters talk about the dead firefighters, Nick opens up and they create testimonies to these men.
This is a very moving work of drama. Although rooted in the events of 9/11, the play touches on issues that transcend that specific historical moment; it’s about the place of a writer in society and about the potential power of words as healing tools. It’s also about how extraordinary events impact ordinary people

Cast Members:
Cody Daigle as Nick | Bio*
Jody L. Powell as Joan | Bio
Director: Tammy Lamonte
Assistant Director: Charlie Roy

photo credit: Facebook page, The Delta Grand Theatre, Opelousas, LA

*I've met this guy, Cody (4th from the left in the photo) & have seen/enjoyed a number of his plays performed in Lafayette, esp at Cite des Arts, but have never seen him act--yet, but this afternoon for the last performance, in honor of the 10 Year Anniv of 9-11 am planning on attending...my bro in law use to be a volunteer fireman, but not anymore, & thankfully not ever in NYC & not in 2001?! And I hear too it will be the last time we'll see Cody in a 'stache - tomorrow he's back to his beard?!

photo credit: finally--me, at the end, smoke still in the background, real local firemen in the line up, Cody/Nick in his captain uniform somewhat center, Jody Powell/Joan to the right & I had forgotten there's a woman in firefighter's gear too next to her - didn't get to hear her story (am thinking now if they did all 8 'guys' who were lost for real that day in this play then I only heard 3 of them coming in late, that leaves 5 earlier that I would of missed & could be 1 was a woman? or she's local? or she's a surviving wife or daughter or ?? I may have to read the book yet to find out more & perhaps before next year...)

note: returning from the play & writing...It was indeed a moving show, Cody as Nick had a major part & filled the captains/the fireman's shoes & his uniform well, even with an added New York accent...He can act, he is not just fluff & now I know he can do more than direct a play he can be in one as well, very well...And really I don't know how he could say his lines in this play, I would of lost it after talking about the first on his 'guys' at the firehouse that was lost that day in the Twin Towers - it's when people start telling a particular person's story on that day I can't not get choked up...

At the end of the play you found out there were real firemen in the last lineup of firemen on stage - so some of  "our guys" or local guys/the real firemen were mentioned as they stood on the stage with the actors & since I missed the beginning of the play I don't know if anyone knew a firemen or a first responder lost on 9-11 which they might have announced at the start...

As Nick/Cody says in one line during the play...we watched the video at the firestation...you see them just walk away, they just walked away...then Nick/Cody walks away off stage & you're left quietly thinking a moment...he's just walked away - what if right? What if you were the one to walk away to your job that day, to your plane, & you never walked back home again...

Now I'd like to get a copy of this play & be able to read it, read what I missed at the start & just to reread these 8 firefighter's stories & about the captain - a man of action - & the journalist - a woman of words - that helped him write his eulogies--that is of course with a whole box of tissues by my side...

note: there is a book from the play, so must look for this next - here the photo of the cover...

For many it would be a cleansing - & am sure for some who've watched this play over the years - a healing experience...what an honor to be in such a play & how well they did honor these particular firemen as well as all the others lost/affected/left...forever remembered ox....

Link to the local theatre in Opelousas, LA...
http://www.deltagrandtheatre.com/theguys2011.html


          ///

The Guys is a play by Anne Nelson
about the aftereffects of the collapse of the World Trade Center.
In the play, Joan, an editor, helps Nick, an FDNY captain, prepare the eulogies for an unprecedented number of firefighters who died under his command that day.
The play debuted off-Broadway at The Flea Theater on December 4, 2001, directed by Jim Simpson and starring Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray. (*see below in photo)

photo credit: Variety Reviews, 2002 review of Flea Theater presentation by Charles Isherwood

Since 2001, The Guys has been presented in 48 US states and in... (5 countries to date)
Tim Robbins & Susan Sarandon presented it at the Edinburgh Festival.

photo credit: from The Telegraph, article by Charles Spencer Aug, 2002

It enjoyed a commemorative rerun at the Flea Theater in 2006 on the 5th anniversary of 9/11...
They also star in a 2002 film adaptation, for which Weaver was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award...

photo credit: blockbuster.com - the 2002 movie version

The audible.com recorded version, which featured Bill Irwin and Swoosie Kurtz, won an Audie Award...

Thank you Wikipedia for the breakdown, to the link...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guys

              ///

"Tim Cummings as Nick in “The Guys,” Anne Nelson’s 9/11 play that opened in December 2001 with Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver. It’s being re-mounted this year for the fifth anniversary of the attacks.

Five years later, still one of ‘The Guys’

By Tim Cummings

...Not since being in The Guys have I remotely touched on how powerful theater can be. As it entertains you, causing you to laugh, to cry, to think, it has a restorative healing power, too. It’s true there are a million stories to be told about 9/11, and “The Guys” is only one of them…but it is the story that I know, and the story that I get to tell again this year at The Flea, for the 5-year commemorative re-mounting of Anne Nelson’s play. And going back to this work that made me a better person and a better actor is a rare opportunity."

photo credit: Tim Cummings as Nick in The Guys - 2006 article in The Villager

an excerpt from The Villager article link...
http://www.thevillager.com/villager_175/fiveyearslaterstill.html

     ///

 

Watch with at least 1 box of tissues

 

Oh to touch a Stradivarius...

photo credit: Wikipedia

note: if there wasn't a copyright on so many photos, would of loved the 1 of them on the Brooklyn Bridge...more on their official webpage if you're really curious & then too there are the YouTubes (see below for a few links)

Link to their Offical webpage...
http://www.tokyoquartet.com/

Tokyo String Quartet:

Martin Beaver, violin

Kikuei Ikeda, violin

Kazuhide Isomura, viola

Clive Greensmith, cello
      
        ###

Instruments:

Thanks to the Nippon Music Foundation, the Tokyo String Quartet performs on "The Paganini Quartet," a group of renowned Stradivarius instruments named for legendary virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, who acquired and played them during the 19th century.

On loan since 1995, the Tokyo String Quartet has had the great pleasure of recording with these special instruments. Their Mozart disc on the Biddulph label and their new Beethoven disc on Harmonia Mundi marks the first time in 30 years that all 4 instruments have been featured together on recordings.

         ###

the Program:

Haydn - Quartet in G Major Op 77 No 1 "Lobkowitz" (1732 - 1809)
Allegro moderato
Adagio
Menuet: Presto *
Finale: Presto

(*note: yes, as in the dance & it does sound like they should have period costumed folks behind them on the stage twirling around as they play - or - sitting in a Victorian parlor, ladies w/fans in their hands as they all listen raptly to the strings...)

Szymanowski - Quartet No 1 in C Major Op 37 (1882 - 1937)
Lento assai, Allergro moderato
Andantino semplice
Scherzando alla burlesca: Vivace

(note: I have never heard anything like this before, it was so very modern & almost discordant for the composer to have lived in those times, maybe in Poland as he was Polish...per Wikipedia--am thinking he was ahead of his times in any case...also he was a pianist & a composer so am wondering too how that translated to the strings instead...whatever/however I enjoyed it, all the odd but lovely sounds & bow work, made it very interesting to watch & listen to...I want to hear more & am curious if my piano playing friend for the Ballet in Houston has ever heard of him/played any of his pieces, hmmm...)

Link to a YouTube where the Royal String Quartet is playing...
http://youtu.be/eYzzz4FM7Jg

(note: of course they are 'not' playing on Stradivarius instruments either?! the first string is so high pitched & loud, it's no where as beautiful as the Tokyo String Quartet & first string on his Stradivarius violin - am hoping I may one day find the piece being played again on one of their CD's, at the concert here only Beethoven on their CD's for sale & their latest CD was sold out by the time I made it to the table in the lobby...)

Intermission

Schumann - Quartet in A minor Op 41 No 1 (1810-1856)
Introduzione: Andante espressivo; Allegro
Scherzo: Presto
Adagio
Presto

(note: a German composer & the MC for the night loves him as I think he said he was German - it's very romantic, as he mentioned too...am very happy he was determined to bring this world class string quartet to Lafayette to the AcA for their first time in Louisiana & I was living here again to hear it?!)

Encore
Dubussy - but I can't repeat the details of what they played, as I'm not a classical musician
 (1862 - 1918)

note: perhaps they were playing, as their YouTube video I found, Dubussy's Tres Modere - link following...

You Tube Link to another Tokyo String Quartet recording, different composer than what appears to be their favorite - Beethoven, as most of their CD's are of this composer's works...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0Ml0Kd7VxE&feature=related
playing Debussy String Quartet; 4. Très modéré - in G minor Op.

Link to Wikipedia for Dubussy - where at the bottom there are Media boxes to have a listen to his fantasy, dreamy, clouds type pieces...but again find he's a pianist & here they were playing strings as a quartet, curious...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Debussy

(note: had an Arts Class once in college & they played his, Clouds piece I think it was called & fittingly so...I see it on YouTube videos as Noctures - Clouds... link: http://youtu.be/e1XSJHTOFAI )

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Link to local newspaper, The Advertiser, article...
http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20110818/ENTERTAINMENT/110818032/Tokyo-String-Quartet-coming-Lafayette-September

Link to Iberia Bank - they're presenting this event...
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=233679100004815&ref=nf

"Lafayette audiences will have the unique opportunity to see, hear and be in the presence of a priceless set of instruments at this performance...The opportunity to get up close and personal to instruments of this quality and historic significance is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."


"This performance will have you experience the excitement of works by groundbreaking composer Belá Bartók, alongside the classical splendor of Joseph Haydn, known as “the father” of the string quartet."

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You Tube Link to a current concert played at festival in Montreal, Canada...
http://youtu.be/XoSDMqEmXn0
playing Beethoven String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, op. 135

note: they don't rest their chins directly on the Stradivarius, but on a linen/handkerchief first
(me, I'd be afraid to touch the instrument at all?!)


Link to when they played on Sesame Street, with Oscar in his trashcan...
http://youtu.be/NaMGrb0LHls
(note: I love they were on Children's TV on Sesame Street)

Link to video on Sesame Street webpage where Big Bird & Snuffy dance the minuet to the Tokyo String Quartet playing...
http://www.sesamestreet.org/video_player/-/pgpv/videoplayer/0/c477a531-1d4f-11dd-9f67-ef9c392005af

(note: Oh how I loved Sesame Street, you can tell when my boys were kids...Come & Play--Everything's A-OK...Can you tell me How to Get, How to Get to Sesame Street?!)

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Link to Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_String_Quartet

Antonio Stradivari, by Edgar Bundy, 1893: a romanticized image of a craftsman-hero
(photo credit: Wiki)

Links to read more about the instruments - Stradivarius...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Stradivari
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stradivarius

note: love this..."On 21 June 2011, a 1721 Stradivari violin known as "Lady Blunt" was bought by an anonymous bidder for £9,808,000 ($15,932,115) with all proceeds going to help the victims of the Japan earthquake."

The Antonio Stradivari violin of 1703 on exhibit, behind glass, at the Musikinstrumentenmuseum, Berlin (photo credit: Wiki)

note: I think the closest viewing of a Stradivarius in a museum in the US would be either the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the US Library of Congress...

I've always wanted to see Itzhak Perlman play, any violin, let alone a Stradivarius...
"The Soil of 1714 is owned by virtuoso Itzhak Perlman."

black & white photo (some of my fav's are in b/w)
from Itzhak Perlman's webpage - the one on Wiki is in color,
I like this one better (am hoping it's OK to borrow it just his once?!)
And is this a Stradivarius? Is this his 1714 the Soil?!

Itzhak Perlman's webpage link...
http://www.itzhakperlman.com/

Adored this film, for the red violin alone - only now am reading this about the movie...
[The film The Red Violin was inspired by one of Stradivari's violins, the Red Mendelssohn (1721),which is currently played by Elizabeth Pitcairn, heiress to the PPG Industries fortune, whose grandfather purchased it for her 16th birthday for $1.7 million at auction at Christie's London. She is one of the few soloists who performs the Red Violin Chaconne composed for the film by John Corigliano. The notion that the fictional violin is red because it is painted with the blood of the maker's wife, who died during childbirth, is a creation of the filmmaker and is yet unsubstantiated. The real violin is called "The Red Mendelssohn" because of a unique red stripe on its top right side, but how the stripe came about is unknown.]

movie poster borrowed from Wiki
thank you - photo credit

Link to the Wiki about The Red Violin...
(note: I swear there's a Wiki for everything on the planet & then some?!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Violin

Link to the woman who was a girl who would own 'the' Red Violin...
http://www.elizabethpitcairn.com/
note: read more about her Stradivarius there...
here (below) this glorious photo of her dressed in red playing the Red Violin -
would love Love LOVE to see her play this violin in concert now
[why oh why did I start looking all this up about the Stradivarius violins... :o( ]

Elizabeth Pitcairn
In Concert The Riverside Symph
photo credit: her webpage, thank you!!!
(I think I'm in love--w/the violin right, what else?!)


from her Calendar I see on: Sept 24, 2011
she'll be in Ft. Collins, CO playing at the Lincoln Center there
closest to either me or a relative - will have to send my niece to go
w/her camera phone?! (mwah hah hah...)

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And this is why I love the sound of a really well played violin...
I use to play as a kid - see following photos for proof...

the Elementary School student violin/case...

not a Stradivarius...sigh...

not the/The Red Violin...sigh...

Oh my--this case is from the 5th or 6th grade of Elementary School...
enough said, but am thinking maybe I tried to patch it up years later with this colored electric tape...
(isn't there a song in that--it's the artist in me?!)

Knew it was Nobel--when I saw the photo!

Wikipedia: Student table at the Nobel Prize Banquet 2005 with menu and the special Nobel service; name tags are anonymized. 10 Dec 2005 Author: Hansbaer

Link for the photo...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nobel-banquet-table.jpg

You will find a similar place setting & in particular this bowl with a star like lid for sure at the exhibit of Fabulous Flatware at UL's Art Museum...

But it wasn't the place setting that made me know it was Nobel's Award Dinner - it was the photo they had in the case with the flatware & china & glassware...

Later I would be told by the curator, I believe she was, that it was not a complete set but random pieces put together to resemble the original place settings - at what is the famous Nobel Prize Banquet following the Award of the Nobel Prize every year since 1991 at their City Hall in Stockholm, Sweden...

credit: Live Design photo of Stockholm's City Hall set up for the Nobel Prize Banquet

Link for the Blue Hall photo from 2009 Nobel Prize Banquet...
http://blog.livedesignonline.com/briefingroom/2010/01/11/wysiwyg-at-the-nobel-prize-banquet/#more-4167

(note: I'm not sure what year the photo is from that's in the exhibit's display case, it doesn't state a date in the catalog that I can see...)

Take note the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway - while the rest of the Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden...you may remember our US President receiving the Peace Prize back in 2008 - that was in Oslo & not in Stockholm (I know many of you will get your Scandinavian countries mixed up, so thought I'd best add this note.)

Norway, Finland, Denmark are also represented at the Fabulous Flatware exhibit here in Lafayette...

Of course my attraction goes mainly to Norway as I lived in Stavanger, Norway for about 2 years & just back home to the US of A as of the end of last year...when I lived there I would visit at least one porcelain factory south of town, bringing home with me a child's place setting that included a little white mug for hot chocolate that has an almost 50's style green forest scene with at least one mushroom on it (this factory in particular had a museum inside of all the place settings since they had started manufacturing...)

Link to Figgjo in Norway - at the bottom under Kindergarden you can click Table Settings & see there's only 3 selections & none of them are mine, still you can see their favorite Trollish styled one (these are not your cute loveable red/green pointed hat wearing Gnomeo & Juliet type gnomes that we're use to seeing more of I think)

http://figgjo.no/en/

Figgjo Children's Set called Magi - decorated with fairytale characters & landscapes...

note: this isn't the one I brought home, but it's close...so precious (tho I've given it away as a gift, not even a photo of the set for myself?!)

But what I did bring home to keep was my 'Instant Karma!' coffee/latte mug from Food Story in Stavanger, Norway - talked them into letting me buy one to leave the country with as a momento, as you cannot buy company made designs at the factory & I'd drank a lot of coffees there...but now I've gotten off of Flatware & on into Porcelain/Tableware or Coffee, so nevermind...

Back to the subject of Fabulous Flatware then...

Gense’s own Nobel Gold and Silver flatware...

Designed by: Gunnar Cyrén for the 90th Anniv of the Nobel Prize...

Link for photo credit...

http://creativedanes.blogspot.com/2009/11/dine-in-style-every-day-with-nobel-gold.html

(note: a 5 pc setting goes for about a $100.00 from what I can find for sale online)

I'll repeat this from the Star Trek Futuristic Flatware post...
The Fabulous Flatware exhibits description from their webpage...

Link...
http://museum.louisiana.edu/

\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \

Fabulous Flatware: Non-traditional Tools of the Table, The William P. Hood, Jr. Collection

Since the nineteenth century designers have been breaking with tradition and dreaming up contemporary dining tools. At times the change has just been new decoration; at others it’s been a new form or type, sometimes challenging our preconceived notion of how flatware should look and sometimes blurring the distinction between eating and serving implements. Advances in production technology have resulted in new composition, texture, colors and wear-resistance.

An exhibition at the Paul and Lulu Hilliard Art Museum, University of Louisiana, Lafayette, will showcase contemporary flatware from 1898 to 2011. Drawn primarily from the collection of Dr. William P. Hood Jr., 330 examples from 110 patterns from around the world will illustrate the changes in decorative style, size, function, materials and techniques.

Flatware designs and place setting are grouped thematically into 8 sections: Espresso, anyone?—small coffee spoons and in many cases matching cups and saucers; Eating can be fun—children’s flatware, combining novelty and functionality; A salad of servers—tools for tossing salad in myriad designs; Mamma mia!—implements for eating and serving pasta and pizza; These take the cake—servers for pastry; Traveling flatware—flatware to go; Flatware that’s not flat—new ideas or new takes on old ideas; and Lovingly handmade—artful creations crafted by artisans.

Organized by the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The exhibition is available for travel to other institutions. For more information contact Dr. Lee Gray at curator@louisiana.edu.

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